DEFENDING A CONTESTED IDEAL: MERIT AND THE PSC OF CANADA 1908-2008 GOVERNANCE SERIES overnance is the process of effective coordination whereby Gan organization or a system guides itself when resources, power, and information are widely distributed. Studying governance means probing the pattern of rights and obligations that underpins organizations and social systems; understanding how they coordinate their parallel activities and maintain their coherence; exploring the sources of dysfunction; and suggesting ways to redesign organizations whose governance is in need of repair. The series welcomes a range of contributions—from conceptual and theoretical reflections, ethnographic and case studies, and proceedings of conferences and symposia, to works of a very practical nature—that deal with problems or issues on the governance front. The series publishes works both in French and in English. The Governance Series is part of the publications division of the Centre on Governance and of the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa". This is the 19th volume published within this series. The Program on Governance and Public Management also publish a quarterly electronic journal: www.optinnumonline.ca. Editorial Committee Caroline Andrew Linda Cardinal Monica Gattinger Luc Juillet Daniel Lane Gilles Paquet (Director) The published titles in the series are listed at the end of this book. DEFENDING A CONTESTED IDEAL: MERIT AND THE PSC OF CANADA 1908-2008 Luc Juillet and Ken Rasmussen UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA PRESS OTTAWA © University of Ottawa Press, 2008 All rights reserved. The University of Ottawa Press acknowledges with gratitude the support extended to its publishing list by Heritage Canada through its Book Publishing Industry Development Program, by the Canada Council for the Arts, by the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences through its Aid to Scholarly Publications Program, by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and by the University of Ottawa. LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION Juillet, Luc, 1969- Defending a contested ideal: merit and the Public Service Commission, 1908- 2008 / Luc Juillet and Ken Rasmussen. (Governance series.ISSN 1487-3052 ; 19) Issued also in French under title: A la defense d'un ideal conteste. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7766-0684-2 1. Public Service Commission of Canada—History. I. Rasmussen, Ken A., 1957- II. Title. III. Series: Governance series (Ottawa, Ont.);19 JL108J8413 2008 352.2'60971 C2008-904251-4 Published by the University of Ottawa Press, 2008 542 King Edward Avenue Ottawa, Ontario KIN 6N5 www.uopress.uottawa.ca TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments .vii Foreword xi Introduction Democratic Government, Merit and the Public Service Commission of Canada 1 Chapter 1 The Origins of the Public Service Commission: 1867-1918 18 Chapter 2 Creating a Merit System: 1918-1944 48 Chapter 3 Rethinking the CSC: Gordon, Heeney and Glassco: 1945-1967 74 Chapter 4 The Management Assault on the Public Service Commission: 1967-1979 97 Chapter 5 Struggling to Defend Political Neutrality: 1979-2006 124 Chapter 6 The PSC as a Cautious Reformer: Staffing Reforms during the Mulroney Years: 1984-1993 152 Chapter 7 Merit as the Essential Mandate: Repositioning the PSC: 1993-2008 184 Conclusion 225 Index 238 This page intentionally left blank ACKNOWLEDGMENTS When we were first approached with the idea of writing a history of the Public Service Commission on the occasion of its centenary, our enthusiasm was initially accompanied by a few doubts. Nowadays, administrative history is not very popular amongst scholars of public administration, but, in this case, the book would necessarily be seen as a follow-up on The Biography of an Institution: The Civil Service Commission, 1908-1967, the seminal study published in 1967 by Professor Ted Hodgetts and his colleagues. Given that the book is somewhat of a landmark in the field of Canadian public administration, modesty and good sense seemed to advise against simply attempting to follow in its footsteps: the work would have to be of a different nature. Moreover, writing a serious academic study of an institution at a time when it would be celebrating its anniversary seemed particularly daunting and condemned to disappoint many of those who love the institution and have been part of its history. In the end, we undertook this project because the Public Service Commission is a unique institution with a history that is intimately intertwined with the evolution of a fundamental principle of Canadian public administration: the principle of merit. Over the years, and still today, as we attempt to ensure competent and efficient management of public resources, provide equality of opportunities in public employment, and ensure a proper balance between preventing patronage and ensuring the public service's responsiveness to elected officials, the principle of merit remains a key part of our debates on vii viii Defending a Contested Ideal the future of the public service. In fact, the principle of merit, and hence the institution designed to protect it and make it an operational reality, occupy an important place in our conception of the role and the constitutional position of the public service in our democracy since the early twentieth century. For this reason, it became apparent to us that an examination of the history of the Public Service Commission and its evolving role in the protection of merit could also be an opportunity to better understand how Canada has addressed some of the difficult questions raised by operating an effective public administration in ways that also meet the broader objectives of democratic government. We hope that the readers will find this work useful in this regard. In completing this work, we have accumulated a debt of gratitude toward many people. We want to thank the leadership of the Institute of Public Administration of Canada and the Public Service Commission for the trust that they showed in offering us this opportunity The president of the PSC, Maria Barrados, offered unwavering support throughout the project, while at all times respecting our independence as we crafted the analysis presented in the book. In fact, the Commission has been as scrupulous in its respect of our academic freedom as it has been generous in its support, providing invaluable access to documents and people. For this reason, we express our gratitude to Mme Barrados as well as to Bernard Miquelon and Robert Desperrier. We thank everyone who has read the manuscript, in full or in part, and provided useful comments and suggestions, especially Gilles Paquet, James Iain Gow, Maria Barrados, and Marie Tremblay. We also greatly benefited from the generosity of the many individuals, including the former presidents of the Commission, who agreed to be interviewed for this book. Many people also provided research assistance and editorial support. Alick Andrews provided with much appreciated assistance in setting up and conducting many of the interviews, but we also benefited from the experience and wisdom that he accumulated over many years in human resource management in the public service. Aaron Hamilton, Travis McLellan, Michael Perry and Marc Gervais provided research assistance on various parts of the manuscript. Louise Normand played a key role in shepherding the manuscript to completion, displaying flawless Acknowledgments ix professionalism in the process. Patricia Balfour provided excellent copy editing, not only helping us to improve our writing but also to clarify our thinking. We thank her for her expertise and hard work. We are also very grateful to the staff of the Public Works and Government Services Translation Bureau in Quebec City for the excellent translation of this book. Finally, the team at the University of Ottawa Press deserves special recognition for producing the book with exceptional timeliness and effectiveness. In this regard, we express our heartfelt gratitude to Gilles Paquet, whose continued support was essential in bringing the project to fruition. As we began our research, we were both offered the opportunity to take on leadership positions at new schools of public policy in our respective universities. While these appointments represented great opportunities, they added considerably to the challenge of finding the time to research and write the book. That we were able to finish it at all was due to the support of our respective institutions. At the University of Regina's Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, Ken Rasmussen thanks especially Sarina Wowchuk for her support. At the University of Ottawa's Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, Luc Juillet expresses his sincere gratitude to Robert Asselin, France Prud'Homme and Ginette Robitaille for their assistance. Finally, many evenings and weekends were sacrificed to this project, cutting down on time that should have been spent with our families. Luc Juillet wishes to thank Sophie, Veronique and Sacha for their love, unconditional support, and understanding. Ken Rasmussen would like to thank Suzanne, Kaitlin and Jonathan for their love and support over the years. Luc Juillet and Ken Rasmussen This page intentionally left blank FOREWORD The morning of my arrival at the Public Service Commission, my colleagues presented me with a book entitled The Biography of an Institution. Written by Professor J. E. Hodgetts et al., it was all about the first sixty years of this organization. The commission is not well known outside of the public service so I was pleased to read such a comprehensive piece of work about the organization for which I had just begun to work as president. It would appear that change and challenge have always been a way of life for the commission, even from its very inception. One hundred years ago, in 1908, the Civil Service Commission, as it was then called, was born. It is my good fortune to be here for this special birthday. The book you are about to read is a special contribution to the celebration of this event.